Dante Alighieri
The Divine Comedy
Biography of Dante
• Born in Florence, Italy, in 1265
• Exiled from Florence in 1300
– Political party was overthrown
– Civil war was the result of a fight
The Comedy
• It is unknown when Dante began writing his
masterpiece The Comedy.
• Traditionally defined, a comedy begins in
sorrow and ends in joy.
• Dante just called his work The Comedy, later
Italian writers called it The Divine Comedy.
• It appears that he had finished the first of its
three parts by 1314.
• He finished the last part only shortly before
his death in 1321.
Brief Plot
• Begins with Dante in a dark wood.
• Trying to find his way out he climbs up a
mountain, but it driven back by three beast
who block him.
• In fear, he runs toward an approaching man to
ask for help.
• The man is Virgil his guide through Hell,
Purgatory, and Heaven.
• Virgil tells Dante that he has been sent by
Beatrice (a woman who Dante loved) to guide
him through his spiritual journey.
• Dante follows Virgil, who conducts him
through Hell, a funnel-shaped region under
the surface of the earth, with a series of
terraces that form narrowing circles on which
various kinds of evil deeds are punished, down
to the center.
• They reach the end of the funnel and the
directions up and down are reversed.
• Here they enter a tunnel which leads them
out on the other side of the earth, opposite of
Jerusalem.
• They are at Mount Purgatory, and they climb
it.
• At the summit of the mount they find Eden,
the earthly Paradise.
• In Paradise, Beatrice, Dante’s lover,
accompanies him to Heaven.
• Once he gets to Heaven, he sees all of the hosts
(angels) of Heaven, and is given a vision of the
glory of God.
• This is where the poem ends.
• The Divine Comedy is composed of over 14,000
lines.
• Those lines are divided into three canticas (or
hymns), Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradise.
• Each canticas is divided into 33 cantos (or a large
division of poetry).
• Canto 1 serves as an introduction.
• There are 100 cantos counting the introduction.
• 3 is a very prominent number in this work.
Dante’s Hell
• Located inside the earth.
• There are nine circles
• Each circle is smaller than the one above and
contains a different class of sinners.
• Lesser sins are punished in the top circles
• As sins become greater the punishment gets
harsher, and the circles narrow.
• Lucifer is in the center of the lowest circle (frozen
lake).
Greek Influence
• The five rivers of the Greek underworld
appear in the work
– four in The Inferno
– Lethe as the transition from Purgatory to Paradise.
• Charon acts as a ferry operator and refuses
Dante because he is not dead.
• Minos (son of Zeus and Europa), transformed
into a bull-monster.